Brighton crowds roll up for circus festival

EVER wanted to run away and joint the circus? If the huge crowds who turned up for Brighton’s Circus Festival are anything to go by – it looks like a few locals have had this dream. About 400 people came along to learn circus tricks, meet the crazy clown and some brave children even showed off their new tricks in the circus show.

Circus performers, Hamish and Amelia show what circus performing is all about.

Dynamic acrobatic brother and sister duo performed to an entranced audience. Hamish and Amelia Anderson made it to the semi-finals of the hit television show Australia’s Got Talent. Their fabulous tricks and unique costumes wowed the notoriously hard to please judge, Red Symonds who invited the duo back for an exciting encore performance on the shows last night.

The duo from Rose Bay enjoyed teaching children circus and acrobatic tricks. “Look where these skills got us,” Amelia said.

“We were on national television being complimented by Red Symonds – not an easy bloke to please. I joined a circus in Ulverstone when I was seven. The troupe was like a second family. I want to form another circus in the south of the state. We want to promote the many benefits of circus training,” she said.

The Salvation Army organised the Circus Play and Show to encourage children to get active for physical and mental health.

“It’s wonderful to be able to offer children in Brighton a free event during the holidays where they’re doing something fun and physical whilst socializing with other children,” said the Salvation Army’s Moneka Knight.

The event was organised by staff from The Salvation Army initiatives Home and School Support (HASS) and Communities for Children. These are early intervention and prevention programs for children. They focus on the child holistically in the context of their family working from a solution focused and strengths based perspective.

“The event was about getting children to try new things instead of saying “I can’t”. Research shows informal learning out of the classroom, particularly of fun skills, like juggling and acrobatics, can be a non-threatening way to re-engage students. If these children are enjoying learning and having successes this helps their self esteem and can make them more positive about more formal classroom learning,” Ms Knight said.

She said it was a wonderful demonstration of what community collaborations could achieve with people from The Salvation Army, Brighton Council, Good Beginnings, Hobart Gymnastics and PCYC all working together to create a wonderfully fun community event.